Brandon Ruckdashel

Brandon Ruckdashel is the Festival Director for YoungFilmmakers. He has been the Program Director for NewFilmmakers for the last three years and Marketing Director for six. Brandon is a filmmaker who is most well known for his acting work in the HBO series Co-Ed Confidential and numerous B-Movies. Brandon has worked with Roger Corman alumni Fred Olen Ray and Jim Wynorski along with a number of other very talented directors. Brandon's Directorial debut GRINDER will be out in theaters in 2016.

YoungFilmmakers screens quarterly in New York at Anthology Film Archives. Opened in 1970 by Jonas Mekas, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, and Stan Brakhage, Anthology in its original conception was a showcase for the Essential Cinema Repertory collection. An ambitious attempt to define the art of cinema by means of a selection of films which would screen continuously, the Essential Cinema collection was intended to encourage the study of the medium’s masterworks as works of art rather than disposable entertainment, making Anthology the first museum devoted to film as an art form. The project was never completed, but even in its unfinished state it represented an uncompromising critical overview of cinema’s history, and remains a crucial part of Anthology’s exhibition program.

Wednesday / January 4th - Deren

YoungFilmmakers present a Red Bull produced documentary about extreme sports

6:00PM YOUNGFILMMAKERS DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM Sarah Gambles ARMOR: BIRACIAL IN THE DEEP SOUTH (2016, 65 minutes, digital) Four women share their experiences of being biracial in the post segregationist American South.

8:15PM YOUNGFILMMAKERS FIRST FEATURE PRESENTATION Mariya Somova FAIL (2016, 78 minutes, digital) A group of lost and troubled dreamers, wasting their youth on the streets of New York, have decided to shoot a movie. But little do they know this experience will change their lives forever.

9:45PM YOUNGFILMMAKERS SECOND FEATURE PRESENTATION Scout Tafoya DIANA (2016, 88 minutes, digital) Diana is about a woman who goes hunting night after night, looking for someone, anyone, to satisfy her hunger in an alienating urban landscape.

Wednesday / January 18th - Courthouse

YoungFilmmakers presents a night of YoungWomen, High School, and Art Film directors

James Moore LIFE HEIST (2016, 72 minutes, video) In Manchester, Vermont, security is minimal...real minimal. Folks don't even lock their doors when they go on vacation. When two Manchester high schoolers John (Harrington) and Alex (Finaldi) learn that a loved one has a rare kind of cancer, not covered by insurance, they take advantage of Manchester's minimal security by robbing the local bank. With the help of a janitor from their high school (Ferguson), and a crew of fellow high schoolers, the boys embark on a journey that entails excitement, love, betrayal, and redemption. Feel your heart beating and breaking in a chaotic harmony of life and death. Feel the desperation, perspiration, and redemption while laughing the whole way. This is Life Heist.